"Obviously I am a political person and my views come through, but often as not there are witty or amusing or stupid things that happen when you're knocking on hundreds of people's doors every day.

"I think it's quite interesting for people to understand what motivates us.

"A lot of people think politicians are just power-crazed megalomaniacs when we people like they are who have decided they want to do something to make life better."

Wells Labour candidate Dan Whittle says he uses a blog because he can get instant feedback on what he is doing.

"I put something about a campaign I have been running for about 12 months about improving the local bus network for pensioners and I got an email last night from a pensioner asking about our plans for pensioners over the next five years."

David Walter, a Liberal Democrat candidate in Devon, said: "The people who read it most avidly are probably our political opponents, trawling it to find anything they can use against us.

"To some extent we shall be preaching to the converted, but even that is not a bad thing because it is very important to keep your supporters informed of what you're doing."